1st day at University of Erfurt

7^th of August, 2013

Well, my first day at the University of Erfurt was very exciting to begin my life’s first Summer School ever. So here it goes:

We had a brief introduction session with various new faces as our summer school mates, belonging to diverse regions of Uzbekistan, Germany, USA, Kazakhistan and Pakistan.First lecture of Intercultural Communication with Mrs. Petra Eweleit was actually electrifying because it awoke in me the courage to speak on a forum with so many foreign students in an entirely foreign country. The best thing was to group the students from all the three universities together, eradicating cultural, regional and language limitations. We elaborated, in a very friendly and academic environment, the maps of both Pakistan and Germany. I as a sociologist believe in avoiding stereotypical mode of thinking for the foreigners, which is a common global practice. And in the lecture, we discussed how these stereotypes are formed due to media and the perception of the viewers; and that if they are true (which mostly are exaggerations by media). Moreover, we shared our views in a group form about the intercultural communication via media, assimilation and tolerance for multiculturalism. Not only the verbal but also the methods of non-verbal communication and symbolization for interacting with different cultures are important. We learnt some cultural aspects deeply associated with Germany, a question-answer activity. Here I learnt about:

·         German way of greeting

·         Hotelling

·         Overcoming xenophobia

·         The digital way of disposing of plastic bottles

·         Gifts for hosts

·         Significance of designation titles for addressing the Germans

·         Punctuality

       We visited the Library of Erfut University and also had a wonderful sight-seeing tour of the historical city of Erfurt with Mr. Felix Beirmann and Mr. Hasnain Bokhari. We visited the Protestant and the Catholic Churches, walked through the beautiful and well- decorated streets, visited malls and markets and the best part was the Town Hall. For me, the most notable thing of Erfurt is the way the people have maintained this old city, and I wish the same attitude be inculcated in the people residing in Pakistan too.

And this is how the first day ended. J